Helping you start, expand or purchase an early-stage, non-tech business
Celine Hajjar, NAFSI Founder
What is your business?
NAFSI is a line of slow luxury fashion that is sustainably sourced and ethically made, with a line of basics & limited quantities of unique pieces. Through NAFSI, I give back to the community, 100% of our deadstock fabric proceeds support newcomer women in Canada.
Why did you start your business?
I started my business for two reasons:
1. Self-expression: I express myself through what I wear and value quality over quantity. There isn’t a brand that offers timeless pieces which are versatile, oversized, and androgynous that also prioritizes sustainability. So, I created my own.
2. Environmental and Human Rights: There aren’t enough luxury brands that incorporate the rights of the environment and garment workers. The industry needs luxury that offers sustainability solutions, NAFSI provides this.
Tell us about yourself as an entrepreneur.
I’m truly doing what I love and that keeps me driven as an entrepreneur. I am always looking for resources, people, books, courses, etc. that can help me develop my skills or teach me something new.
When did you launch your business?
I launched in Dubai January 2020, and in Canada August 2020.
Where do you see your business in 3 to 5 years?
On the runway.
What did you learn from the Starter Company Plus program?
Starter Company Plus was so good to me! I was introduced to such great, knowledgeable people who have helped me develop my business & vision. My biggest takeaway was to network, speak up, and leverage the resources provided to you through the program. They’ve connected me with such great, knowledgeable people that have helped me develop my business & vision.
What advice would you give other entrepreneurs who are starting their businesses?
Let passion drive your work. Passion has kept me going on the days when there are zero sales and it has given me creativity when I’m stuck on a design. It has driven me to become the entrepreneur that I am today.
More Entrepreneurs’ Stories
Frequently Asked Questions
BIPOC as Starter Company Plus’ 2020 priority?
At Invest Ottawa, we know that diversity, inclusion and belonging are critical success factors for globally competitive organizations and are required to drive sustainable wealth creation and prosperity across our region. As an organization that doesn’t simply accept differences, but celebrates and supports it, we prioritize the creation of an inclusive culture and infuse diversity into our programs, operations and governance. As has been widely identified, racialized people face significant barriers in accessing resources necessary for starting and growing successful businesses. In a 2017 survey on ownership demographics of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in Canada, data shows that only 13.6% of businesses are majority-owned by BIPOC. Of this 13.6%, only 3% of businesses are majority owned by BIPOC women. We at Invest Ottawa have recognized this gap, and as such are delivering Starter Company Plus 2020 to specifically help address the needs of racialized people and help close the equity gap in our local entrepreneurial landscape
2SLGBTQ+ is an acronym used to refer to people, as a group, who identify as Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Trans, Gender Independent, Queer and Questioning. The plus sign acknowledges the many sexual and gender minority people who don't see themselves in the umbrella acronym and prefer other identity terms such as pansexual, gender-free, or intersex.
The word "womxn" is an alternative term to the English language word "women." We use this term to explicitly include those who identify as women, transgender women, women of colour and non-binary individuals. This choice supports our concerted effort to create a culture of belonging.
This program is made possible through funding from the Government of Ontario.
Proud Premier Sponsor of Invest Ottawa
Samuel Jun
What led you to a career in Ottawa? Ottawa is one of the fastest growing tech hubs, booming with many companies setting up shop in town. Despite the pandemic, the job market is buzzing with a good mix of startups and multinationals looking for talent. This plus the lower cost of living and housing led us to decide to take root in Ottawa. Both my husband and I have secured new careers in Ottawa and have been working virtually from Toronto. We haven’t relocated yet due to the pandemic but can’t wait to do so as soon as offices re-open.
How did you land this position?I submitted my interest with Invest Ottawa, and a few weeks later, my profile was shared with Foko Retail, a software startup. After that, the interview process was quick, with constant communication and updates from Invest Ottawa’s talent team. I thank Invest Ottawa for opening the doors to this great opportunity!
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Embedded software engineer
Embedded software in high demand with Crank Software:
Crank Software helps easily develop and embed UI designs. With over 350 clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies, Crank Software has helped launch 500 million UIs. A day in the life of a Software Developer at Crank Software includes becoming an expert on its award-winning platform, Storyboard, and developing interface layers from UI to backend code. Taking home an award as one of Ottawa’s best places to work at the 2018-2019 Employee’s Choice Awards, a career at Crank Software is sure to be fun and rewarding.
We connect talent with fast-growing tech companies.
Join our talent pool for embedded software engineers and get discovered.
DevOps Engineer
DevOps are in high demand with these companies:
Evidence Partners is changing the way researchers work. Its systematic literature review system, DistillerSR, helps deliver reviews up to 60% faster than spreadsheet-based processes. The SaaS company is exploding with growth, outgrowing its last office in just four months and taking home a Best Ottawa Business (BOB) award in 2019. This growth is driving Evidence Partners to look for Fullstack Developers and DevOps Engineers that are passionate about streamlining research in the academic and medical fields. Full benefits from day one and flexible work options are just a few of the perks you get working at Evidence Partners.
K
ivuto helps schools go digital. Kivuto Cloud streamlines the management of educational resources such as e–texts and license keys, saving 20K+ schools an average of $50K. Kivuto partnered with educational giant Pearson in 2019 to bring digital education resources to academic institutions. A passion for education paired with skills in .NET Core Web API, AWS, Azure, React, SQL, and other tools and technologies make Kivuto a great place to grow your DevOps or Fullstack Engineering career.
Rewind Backups provides automated backup services, so businesses don’t lose their hard work. The development team at Rewind is made up of four teams of two to three people. Developers implement, test, document, and maintain back-end systems for high-traffic back-up services, delivering quality code and improving the development and deployment processes using AWS. A day at Rewind on the development team could look like anything from supporting Shopify’s new bulk APIs to creating Rewind-Connect; a wrapper for AWS SSM for connecting to Rewind staging and production systems. As the winner of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Employee Choice Award two years in a row, Rewind is an ideal place to work and grow.
Recently securing $10M in financing, Tehama is on the cutting edge of developing tools for the remote workforce. Tehama’s service delivery platform enables organizations to easily onboard, manage and scale a distributed workforce in a secure way. 150 companies are using Tehama. 600,000+ hours of IT services delivered. Zero breaches. Under the leadership of VP Engineering, Jacopo Toccacieli, you’ll be working as part of Tehama’s agile development team and immersed in developing new features for its cloud-based solutions. This will include helping define company-wide API standards, working in React and Angular, and having the ability to work with SQL. You’ll have the option to work remotely or at Tehama’s beautiful offices in the heart of Westboro, steps from some of the best shopping, coffee shops and restaurants in Ottawa.
We connect talent with fast-growing tech companies.
Join our talent pool for DevOps engineers and get discovered.
Mobile Developer
Mobile developers are in high demand with these companies:
Field Effect monitors cyber threats. Amongst many organizations who trust Field Effort to safeguard their cybersecurity, Canadian Internet Registration Agency (CIRA) teamed up with this scaling Ottawa firm to deploy its new API. Talents with an agile and test-driven approach as well as skills in C/C++, Objective-C, and Java are invaluable in helping build and improve Field Effect’s key security products: Covalence, Cyber Range, and Noble. As one of the top Ottawa employers who scored the highest in the Employee Net Promotor Score Initiative commissioned by Invest Ottawa’s Scale-Up program, Field Effect is appreciated by its employees for its commitments to transparency, trust and openness.
Foko Retail helps retail stores manage tasks. Used by 60+ of the largest names in retail including Nike and Dyson, Foko Retail’s mobile-based task management software is easy to use from operations to visual merchandising. With a growing user base, Foko Retail is looking for mobile developers that are adaptable and passionate about retail and SaaS. While Foko Retail’s culture can be relaxed with office dogs and casual attire, it means business when it comes to its team, customers, and products. A competitive salary and benefits package doesn’t hurt either.
Shoebox enables hearing care around the world. It creates, sells, and supports products that help clinicians identify hearing loss. The maker of Shoebox, Clearwater Clinical, hit a huge milestone in 2018 when they entered a strategic partnership with international hearing device company Sivantos. Shoebox lives by the work hard play hard ethos, and offers an array of benefits, team sports, bean bag chairs, and video games at their Glebe Annex office. If you want to be part of a team that does well by doing good, Shoebox is looking for developers with first-hand experience in AWS hosted solutions.
We connect talent with fast-growing tech companies.
Join our talent pool for mobile developers and get discovered.
Full Stack Developer
Full stack developers are in high demand with these companies:
BitHeads builds custom software solutions. With an impressive roster of over 500 projects delivered to Fortune 1000 companies, a career with BitHeads is dynamic with so much room to learn and grow. You could be working on projects ranging from designing an interface for a leading forensic ballistics company to building support for a mobile game with 10 million active users— it’s truly different every day. Whether you are a full stack, server-side, or front-end developer, or prefer to validate developed software, BitHeads is in constant need of skilled resources to build games, apps, and backend support.
Field Effect monitors cyber threats. Amongst many organizations who trust Field Effort to safeguard their cybersecurity, Canadian Internet Registration Agency (CIRA) teamed up with this scaling Ottawa firm to deploy its new API. Talents with an agile and test-driven approach as well as skills in C/C++, Objective-C, and Java are invaluable in helping build and improve Field Effect’s key security products: Covalence, Cyber Range, and Noble. As one of the top Ottawa employers who scored the highest in the Employee Net Promotor Score Initiative commissioned by Invest Ottawa’s Scale-Up program, Field Effect is appreciated by its employees for its commitments to transparency, trust and openness.
Rewind Backups provides automated backup services, so businesses don’t lose their hard work. The development team at Rewind is made up of four teams of two to three people. Developers implement, test, document, and maintain back-end systems for high-traffic back-up services, delivering quality code and improving the development and deployment processes using AWS. A day at Rewind on the development team could look like anything from supporting Shopify’s new bulk APIs to creating Rewind-Connect; a wrapper for AWS SSM for connecting to Rewind staging and production systems. As the winner of the Ottawa Business Journal’s Employee Choice Award two years in a row, Rewind is an ideal place to work and grow.
Recently securing $10M in financing, Tehama is on the cutting edge of developing tools for the remote workforce. Tehama’s service delivery platform enables organizations to easily onboard, manage and scale a distributed workforce in a secure way. 150 companies are using Tehama. 600,000+ hours of IT services delivered. Zero breaches. Under the leadership of VP Engineering, Jacopo Toccacieli, you’ll be working as part of Tehama’s agile development team and immersed in developing new features for its cloud–based solutions. This will include helping define company-wide API standards, working in React and Angular, and having the ability to work with SQL. You’ll have the option to work remotely or at Tehama’s beautiful offices in the heart of Westboro, steps from some of the best shopping, coffee shops and restaurants in Ottawa.
We connect talent with fast-growing tech companies.
Join our talent pool for full stack developers and get discovered.
Data scientists utilize their analytical, statistical, and programming skills to collect, analyze, and interpret large data sets. They then use this information to develop data-driven solutions to difficult business challenges. Data scientists commonly have a bachelor’s degree in statistics, math, computer science, or economics. Data scientists have a wide range of technical competencies including: statistics and machine learning, coding languages, databases, machine learning, and reporting technologies.
Companies currently hiring data scientists
Transforming our data-driven world takes talent, and MindBridge is where it’s happening. This is where you’ll take artificial intelligence to enable and inspire humans to do more and be better. Our people, our customers, and our investors agree: No one else is accomplishing what we’re doing with data-driven AI right now. Learn more and Apply.
On the most basic level, software engineers write, debug, maintain, and test software that instructs a computer to accomplish certain tasks, such as saving information, performing calculations, etc. A software engineer will convert what needs to happen into one of many programming languages, the most common of which being Java, C++ and Python.
While many are self taught, most software engineers have obtained an undergraduate or graduate degree in computer science or computer engineering. The career of a software engineer typically follows one of two primary paths: they either progress through greater responsibility and ownership over technical architecture and systems or they progress into managing teams of software engineers and help orchestrate larger projects and help develop and mentor more junior engineers.
Companies currently hiring front-end developers
Tehama is enabling the digital workplace of the future. 150 companies are using Tehama. 600,000+ hours of IT services delivered. Zero breaches. The company’s head office is in the heart of the highly desirable Westboro neighborhood of Ottawa where you have your pick of the best of Ottawa’s cafes, restaurants and shops. Prefer to work from home? Tehama offers remote working options and flexible core hours. Join a team of the best and brightest and enjoy competitive salaries, benefits and a commitment to YOUR long-term success. Learn more and Apply.
Spartan Bioscience aspires to unleash the power of DNA testing for everyone. Like the Spartan warriors of Ancient Greece, our smart, hard-working, and honorable team members get things done. Learn 10 reasons for joining Spartan and apply today.